The colleague, she is still out on “leave”. No return date yet. No official comment on “why”, which puts it squarely in the realm of “HR” so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist.

Her work has been divvied up in the meantime and we’re all kinda catching up when and where we can but some of her stuff is either incomplete or just flat-out missing. It’s not terrible but no es bueno. Some things, I can back-fill or wait and see if she comes back so I can point out stuff she needs to upload. Unfortunately, some items are time-critical and I’ve had to ask our boss, who has access to her email, to search for them. And it feels pretty crappy to do that.

Wherever she is, I hope she’s doing well. I would love to see her come back and triumph. She’s smart and capable and cares about good work. But I don’t know if this is the job for her.